1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a serious problem where certain patients in behavioral health care facilities or psychiatric institutions try to commit suicide by hanging themselves with cords or other items looped over the handles or knobs of doors to their rooms. This invention relates to methods and apparatus seeking to prevent such attempted suicides.
2. Background and Prior Art
It is known that certain patients in institutions try to commit suicide by various different means. Reasons for such behavior are complex and not the subject of the present invention; however, significant numbers of attempts do occur, and significant numbers of patients are committed into these institutions for the very reason that they are known to be candidates for suicide attempts and these institutions are supposed to be environments for treatment of these and other problems and for prevention of patients from achieving suicide.
While the methods employed for the attempted suicides vary with the available environment and creativity of the patients, the present invention is concerned with attempts by hanging with a cord, belt or other item with the near or proximal portion of the cord wrapped around the door knob, lever or other handle of a door. The distal or remote end of the cord, belt or other item on the interior side of the door is formed into the suicidal noose and then either draped over the door to the far side door knob or handle, or, if short, the patient attempts suicide by dropping down to the floor from the doorknob, lever or other handle on either side of the door.
In typical psychiatric institutions the patients' activities, as regards personal safety and behavior in general, are monitored carefully by staff; however, it is also common for patients to have private rooms with unlocked doors for them to come and go generally as they please. It is in these kinds of situations where a patient has periods of relative privacy and domain over his or her door, when a suicide attempt can be made without immediate awareness of institution staff and with enough time for the suicide to be successful before staff action can be taken. For various reasons there are surprisingly high numbers of attempted and successful suicides in psychiatric institutions that are not generally publicized or known, but administrators of these institutions are quite aware and concerned. The present invention addresses these tragedies and presents a practical apparatus believed to be able to significantly reduce the problem on a nationwide basis.
The present invention will be described herein as it functions within the known protocols of “Passage Mode” and “Classroom Mode” door lock systems. In Passage Mode the door lock is set so that a person can exit a room by pushing down on the interior side lever, and a person can enter the room by pushing down on the exterior side lever. In Classroom Mode the door lock is set differently so that a person inside the room can exit by pushing down on the lever; however, the lockset can be set to function by use of a lever, button, turn piece or key lock feature, in either (a) “Classroom (Locked) Mode” where pushing down on the exterior side lever will not open the door, to prevent patients from entering rooms without supervision, or (b) Classroom (Unlocked) mode which is like the above mentioned Passage Mode. These Passage and Classroom Mode protocols are continued in the present invention, as will be apparent herein and as are further illustrated in the attached Appendix A.